What type of cable do I need to connect a PC laptop to a music system?

Question:
My friend wants to be able to play music from his i-tunes into his music system.


Answer: well what I do is get a cable that has the headphones jacks on both ends, then connect one of the ends to the laptop, then the other to an adapter that lets you connect RCA to standard headphone jacks, then connect RCA cables to the receiver.

Creative Labs Xmod Wireless Music System with X Fi Technology
Creative Labs Xmod Wireless Music System with X Fi Technology
US $20.50
Logitech Squeezebox Duet wifi internet radio streaming music player
Logitech Squeezebox Duet wifi internet radio streaming music player
US $112.50
Music Hall DAC 252 DAC252 USB D A digital analog converter tube audio
Music Hall DAC 252 DAC252 USB D A digital analog converter tube audio
US $119.50
Logitech Transporter Network Music Player With Transnav Knob NEW NOS NIB
Logitech Transporter Network Music Player With Transnav Knob NEW NOS NIB
US $1,500.00
Audio ReQuest N Series Media Server 150GB Music Server w 5800 Songs
Audio ReQuest N Series Media Server 150GB Music Server w 5800 Songs
US $152.51
Roku SoundBridge M1000 Network Music System
Roku SoundBridge M1000 Network Music System
US $74.95
Logitech Wireless Music System for iPod Receiver and parts only
Logitech Wireless Music System for iPod Receiver and parts only
US $5.00
Escient Fireball SE 80 Digital Music Manager CD Player Burner No Reserve
Escient Fireball SE 80 Digital Music Manager CD Player Burner No Reserve
US $11.61
Logitech Squeezebox Boom Wireless Internet Music Player
Logitech Squeezebox Boom Wireless Internet Music Player
US $219.99
NEW Sonos Wireless Music Bundle 2 Play3 Units 1 Bridge White
NEW Sonos Wireless Music Bundle 2 Play3 Units 1 Bridge White
US $529.99
Logitech Squeezebox Duet receiver wifi internet radio streaming music player
Logitech Squeezebox Duet receiver wifi internet radio streaming music player
US $81.00
Sonos ZonePlayer CR100 Digital Music System Controller For Parts Not Working AS
Sonos ZonePlayer CR100 Digital Music System Controller For Parts Not Working AS
US $9.98
Play Network Combo C400 Hard Drive Player 40GB Music
Play Network Combo C400 Hard Drive Player 40GB Music
US $75.00
Royqeen H2000 Music Player FM Radio SD Card and Flash drive reader Alarm clock
Royqeen H2000 Music Player FM Radio SD Card and Flash drive reader Alarm clock
US $14.90
Logitech Squeezebox Radio Music Player with Color Screen Used Black
Logitech Squeezebox Radio Music Player with Color Screen Used Black
US $46.00
Creative Labs Soundblaster Wireless PC Music System DAP WL001
Creative Labs Soundblaster Wireless PC Music System DAP WL001
US $4.00
Escient FireBall SE D1 DVD and Music Manager
Escient FireBall SE D1 DVD and Music Manager
US $225.00
AudioReQuest Audio ReQuest Fusion Pro Digital Music Server 80 GB FOR PARTS NR
AudioReQuest Audio ReQuest Fusion Pro Digital Music Server 80 GB FOR PARTS NR
US $20.00
Sonos ZonePlayer ZP90 MultiRoom Music Player ZP90US1 BRAND NEW FREE SHIPPING
Sonos ZonePlayer ZP90 MultiRoom Music Player ZP90US1 BRAND NEW FREE SHIPPING
US $332.45
Sonos ZP100 Digital Music System Zone Player Barely Used
Sonos ZP100 Digital Music System Zone Player Barely Used
US $250.21
SONOS ZP100 Zone Player Digital Music System 2 Channel Stereo BROKEN AS IS
SONOS ZP100 Zone Player Digital Music System 2 Channel Stereo BROKEN AS IS
US $9.50
Sonos S5 White Digital Music System PLAY5 S5 Play Music with your iphone Used
Sonos S5 White Digital Music System PLAY5 S5 Play Music with your iphone Used
US $199.99
HRT Music Streamer II High Resolution USB D A Converter
HRT Music Streamer II High Resolution USB D A Converter
US $100.00
IHIFI 812 CS4398 24bit 192KHz 8GB internal AMP Portable HiFi Music Player
IHIFI 812 CS4398 24bit 192KHz 8GB internal AMP Portable HiFi Music Player
US $269.00
Sonos ZonePlayer ZP120 MultiRoom Music Player ZP120US1 BRAND NEW FREE SHIPPING
Sonos ZonePlayer ZP120 MultiRoom Music Player ZP120US1 BRAND NEW FREE SHIPPING
US $474.95
ESCIENT Fireball Networked Digital and Physical Music Mgmnt System
ESCIENT Fireball Networked Digital and Physical Music Mgmnt System
US $49.99
Roku Soundbridge M1000 Wireless Network Music Player
Roku Soundbridge M1000 Wireless Network Music Player
US $15.51
Logitech Squeezebox Touch WiFi Network Music Player BRAND NEW
Logitech Squeezebox Touch WiFi Network Music Player BRAND NEW
US $249.95
HRT Music Streamer plus DAC USB Digital to Analog Converter
HRT Music Streamer plus DAC USB Digital to Analog Converter
US $229.00
Sonos ZonePlayer 120 multiroom Music Player ZP120
Sonos ZonePlayer 120 multiroom Music Player ZP120
US $189.99

I'm going to tell you how you can improve the quality of the audio track on your videos without having to spend any money. But first, try an experiment. Go to any website with videos on it. Look for some videos created by small businesses or "regular folks," not by massive corporations like major record labels, CNN, etc. There are millions, if not billions of these videos out there on the web. Some of them really look fantastic. But for some reason, they almost all have crappy audio. Why is that?

Here's why. Though it is more complicated (to me anyway) to edit and produce video than audio, actually capturing it is easy. The latest video technology race has brought "high-definition" video into consumer cameras costing less than $200. But for some reason, there was no simultaneous race to make it easy to capture good audio on these cameras. So we now have powerful cameras everywhere with the same cheap built-in microphones that were on the old camcorders! Result: good video with bad audio.

Audio quality could be drastically improved if these cameras even had an input for you to hook up an external microphone (technique #1 below). But almost none do! I know this because I recently spent months trying to buy a camcorder that did have one. It was only when I started looking at the more expensive "pro-sumer" cameras that I eventually found one.

OK, so what's to be done if you want good sounding audio on your videos? Should you just give up and spend 800 bucks on a camcorder with an external mic jack? Not so fast!

There are things you can do crank up the sound quality of SOME kinds of videos, namely, the ones that are narrated by someone not in the video. Since these narration videos are more and more common, chances are that you can benefit from these two techniques.

1. Improve signal-to-noise ratio. The reason why I said these techniques won't work when the narrator is in the video, is that a camera without an external mic input will be far away from a talking subject in a video. That, all by itself, is one of the biggest causes of poor audio. The further you are from a microphone, the less of YOU it hears, and the more "other stuff" it records. That other stuff can be echo, reverb, birds, cars, air...ANYTHING that isn't the voice of the narrator. We call this "noise." When you have lots of noise and not much narrator, you have a bad signal-to-noise ratio.

To improve this, you need the narrator to be very close to the mic, so the voice will be much louder than the noise. You can do this even with a cheap microphone, but you'll need to record after you've already shot the video, save the resulting audio, and add it to the video on your computer.

2. Clean up noisy audio in the computer. Even recording with a microphone close to your mouth, a cheap microphone plugged into a computer soundcard will generate other kinds of noise. But that can be cleaned up a lot using "noise-reduction" tools in audio editing software. You can get such a program, called Audacity, for free on the internet.

Use both of the above techniques, and the audio quality on your video will be much better. You can find video tutorials that will walk you through how to do these techniques, as well as lots of other great audio tips and tricks, at Home Brew Audio.

Jake Weston

Learn to record and produce professional-sounding audio from home without spending a dime for gear. Fun and short video tutorials show you how. 1st 8 videos free. Follow-on lessons just $7.00 at http://www.homebrewaudio.com/welcome.

http://www.homebrewaudio.com/blog


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